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Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home Holy mother of improvements Batman! Yes, the first game didn't exactly set a high bar, in fact the bar was pretty much underground, but still, this is the biggest leap in quality I've seen from one game to the next. The gameplay is way better, it's actually fun to play now! Weapon variety increased, now there's a fair amount of weapons including some sci-fi stuff and even magic swords, best of all, all of them are actually viable now, yes, some are still better than others, but all can still be used without issues. Enemy variety also increased a fair bit, several new mutants and different zombie models, so you don't run into just the same one over and over (and over and over and over and over) again. The last boss was awesome from a design perspective, super creepy and cool as hell, wouldn't look out of place in Dead Space. Levels are bigger and more varied, each level being unique, there's no more going back and forth the same area a bunch of times, levels now have side quests too, like protecting supply crates, holding back a zombie horde while the girls rock out on stage, etc. Fun stuff all around. Characters now level up, improving their stats, and in the case of the player character, you can also unlock skills, things like more health, more ammo, more stamina, the usual stuff, along with other skills that replace the basic pistol with a revolver and, eventually, a laser pistol. The story also improved, it's still far from good, REALLY far, but it's fun, parts of it were like a low budget Resident Evil, each of the characters also has some extra story chapters for themselves, expanding on their personality, role in the new survivor city and other fun things. There's now a base that you go back after each stage, you can collect materials during the levels and then use those to improve the base, unlocking more areas and character events. That stuff can also be turned off now if you want. Not to say there aren't issues though. Character models improved, but there still rough around the edges, now that there's a base with NPCs walking around, the art style of the main characters sticks out even more than before. Certain animations are still pretty awkward, some reloads make it look like your characters arms are made of spaghetti, The last boss was a bit of a disappointment, though given that weapon spawns are random, maybe I just got really lucky, the rocket launcher wiped it out in a couple of shots lol. However, as much as I enjoyed it, it's still hard to recommend, if only because of the character designs, along some of the content which is most certainly not for everyone. If you've ever wanted a Highschool of the Dead game though, this one's for you. Apparently they're already working on a third one, hopefully they'll continue with the improvements. Looking forward to it. TL;DR: A huge improvement over the first one, in all aspects, though I still wouldn't recommend it to most people. Grade: B-

Diablo IV This entry tried some new things for the series, some good and some bad. How you feel about the changes will probably depend on how much of a purist you are, but here's where I stand on this game: The Good - The campaign is better than III's campaign. It's not amazing or anything but it is more interesting, and Lilith is a pretty good villain. - The overworld is huge and absolutely stuffed with dungeons, random world events, and side content. You can spend a time of time here without even touching the main story. - Respeccing is relatively painless. Just pay some gold for each point you want back. The cost goes up as you level up more, but so far it hasn't been anything I can't manage. - You can see other players running around on the map and can party up with them in just a couple of button presses if you want. Assuming they accept your invite, of course. - Mounts are now a thing. You can't fight from them, but they help you move around the map faster. You can't use them inside of dungeons, but you can use them in towns and on the overworld. They also help you run through unwanted fights, although if you get too overwhelmed the horse will get scared and throw you off. The Bad - Always online. This sucks. While I understand that certain features like the world events and the timed bounties necessitate a persistent connection, there should at least be an option for a scaled down offline mode with fewer features. It'd be better than nothing. - Level scaling. Some people like it, but I'm not a fan. When the enemies are always the same level as you it barely feels like you're getting stronger. This was patched recently so enemies never scale over level 95, but that really only matters after you've been playing for hundreds of hours. - Some skills are just flat out better than others, build be damned. I played a druid and the poison creep summon was so much better than the wolves and the ravens that the latter two weren't even worth considering. We're talking a massive AOE summon that poisons huge groups of enemies and does lots of damage versus a couple of pets that bite someone every few seconds. The Ugly - The game recently got a patch that buffed enemies and nerfed players by a lot without really giving us anything to make up for the nerfs. As a result the game now feels a good bit harder than it did before, and not in a good way. This actually pissed people off so much that Blizzard had to come out and promise never to do a patch like this again, but quite frankly Blizzard's word isn't worth shit to me. I mostly enjoyed the game and I do intend to keep playing and go for the platinum (getting a hardcore character to 50 is going to be a bitch). However, if you're wondering whether or not to get into it my advice would be to give them a while to iron out the kinks and see where the game lands by the time they announce the inevitable expansion.